I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
aha
MoveOn!
Has McCain paid for those four aircraft yet? I am sure his wife could cough up the dough.
Saturday birding thread interrupted by the call of the Arizona Loon...
Catch a pic of JM without all of his makeup. Dood is older than dirt and does not look healthy at all.
Watch the VP candidate. That is who will be the real president if JM wins it.
I rather doubt there will be any change to what passes for journalism in the near future as long as people are beingrewarded for "finding a nut" or still being an asshole but supporting your candidates.
They suck. They suck 24/7 and should be relegated to the trash pile
not poured over as some kind of dumbster diving journalism --where we have to sift for the truth
# Senator McCain, you voted against the King holiday in 1983, denied that your baby is the result of your raping a black woman, and are now running against the first black man to be a Presidential candidate from a major party. Do you hate negroes? Would you denounce Abraham Lincoln for freeing the slaves? You really hate both the negroes and the Republican Party, don't you? Let's get back to hating negroes. When's the last time you were at a Klan rally? How about a Nazi party meeting? We all know you were disowned by David Duke. Is it because you hate negroes more than you hate Jews? Why do you hate Jews so much anyway? Is it the fact that you don't want your sister marrying one?
So let's talk about abortion. Now, you're pro-life. Is that why you adopted your black mistress's baby after you raped her?
# Would you, Senator, once and for all submit to a complete body scan so that there can be no doubt as to whether the Vietcong embedded either digital or organic substances (into your brain or any orifice, organ, ) that are programmed to release your latent communism once you become leader of the free world? If not, why not?
# Mr. McCain, your wife started a charity for wounded veterans, then stole pain medications meant for the injured troops to feed her addiction. Sir, why does your wife not support our troops? Tell me why the American people should elect a President who has a spouse that is not supportive of the troops.
# Do you wear Depends?
# Would you be willing to drop trou and national television to PROVE you don't wear depends?"
# Will Senator Lieberman be whispering into your ear to correct ALL of your erroneous statements?
#
Why do you continue to be associated with someone who plagerized recipes for a cook book? Do you consider her a liar or a thief? Which one?
# Sen. McCain, are you worried that your wife's riches from selling Bud Light will alienate the Christian right votes you depend on? Do you agree with those in many religions that buying, selling, and drinking alcohol is a sin? Do you wish your wife's money that funded your early political races had come from more Christian means?
#
Journalism's been going downhill since Buddy Holly died ...
Can we just make McCain president of Iraq? Seems that's what he's running for.
I also almost jumped out of my fucking head when he announced he was going to tour the "forgotten" parts of America. Why not just say it, bitch: The parts the rich white GOP voters forgot, cause ain't nobody living there forgotten SHIT. I think of all the things I hate about our discourse, I hate the most this thing where people assume that because they discovered it, it has begun to exist. Wow, there's poor people! Wow, there's minorities! Wow, lookit me being all knowledgable, give me a fucking cookie! It drives me wild.
A.
Y'know, you'd think the fact that a major party presidential candidate does not know who we are at war with might be a campaign issue that the media would take note of.
# Senator McCain, some have suggested that you take on Mike Huckabee as your running mate to offset the mistrust many Christian voters have of you given your support of stem cell research, which as you know, they consider to be murder. So my question to you is, will you ask Mr. Huckabee to join your ticket and can you explain why destroying unborn children isn't murder? After all, this viewpoint can be found on the internet.
# It has been widely reported that you told Senator John Cornyn to "fuck off." Given your famous and self-admitted temper, should the American people be concerned that you may use the same sort of language to world leaders?
# Let's move on to religion. You have "proudly" accepted the endorsements of Reverend John Hagee and Rod Parsley. Do believe and accept their belief that the Catholic Church conspired with Hitler to exterminate Jews, that Hurricane Katrina was a righteous punishment from God for the sins of New Orleans, and that a part of our American destiny is to destroy the false religion of Islam? If not, why haven't you publicly disassociated yourself from these remarks?
# Keeping on religion for another moment; 20 years ago you began attending a Baptist Church, yet you refused to be baptized into that church. Why?
# Do you believe that commiting adultery should disqualify someone to be the President of the United States? Why or why not?
# It's been noted that you don't wear an American flag on your lapel. Do you believe that wearing one proves ones patriotism and conversely, does not wearing one mean that you don't love your country? In other words, is this an issue that the American people should be concerned about?
# Senator McCain, after you returned from Vietnam, you divorced your first wife to marry a 25 year old heiress who financed your first campaign only a month after the divorce went through. Did you have an affair while married to your first wife, and can you explain why the voters can trust you on moral issues after your own past record?
# Given your wealth and privileged upbringing, aren't you - and not Barack Obama - the elitist?
# You spent five years living in Hanoi at the expense of a foreign government, how are you going to convince the voters you aren't a communist?
# You lived in very close quarters with a group of men in a place no women were allowed, how are you going to convince the voters you aren't gay?
#
You, sir, are very old. How can you prove to the American people that you will not die of a heart attack during your presidency?
# in your Navy career, you crashed five different planes. How can you convince the American public that you're capable of correctly steering the ship of state?
The opponents we face in Iraq, who we are spending trillions of dollars fighting, is not a fucking academic discussion.
They say he is using a “perfectly reasonable catchall phrase” that, although it may be out of place in an academic setting, is acceptable on the campaign trail, a place that “does not lend itself to long-winded explanations of what we really are facing,”
Heh, the sneering condescension in this explanation tells you all you need to know.
Gromit, he knows who his voters think we're at war with: Ay-rabs.
Which ones? Don't matter. Besides, I rode in a cab with one once and he was an asshole.
GAAAAAAAAAH.
A.
Wow, there's poor people! Wow, there's minorities! Wow, lookit me being all knowledgable, give me a fucking cookie! It drives me wild.
the Dickensian aspect...
To suggest the American people are not capable of, or smart enough, understanding who the enemy in Iraq is simply and snobby, elitist attitude that is an insult to the American people.
The situation they fear and which Mr. McCain himself sometimes fleshes out is that an American withdrawal would stop the Daddy Warbucks gravy train, end the justification for raping the Constitution, and show just what a fuckup the whole Iraq debacle was.
Sleight editing, with apologies to Atrios.
-
Y'know, you'd think the fact that a major party presidential candidate
does not know who we are at war with might be a campaign issue that the
media would take note of.
deadthreaded:
go read Bob Herbert. Stay away from scissors.
Some other analysts do not object to Mr. McCain’s portraying the insurgency (or multiple insurgencies) in Iraq as that of Al Qaeda. They say he is using a “perfectly reasonable catchall phrase” that, although it may be out of place in an academic setting, is acceptable on the campaign trail,
Other analysts say they have no problem with people referring to McCain as a dick-headed old fucker who has smegma coming out of his asshole and liked bombing the fuck out of North Vietnamese civilians. They say this is using a perfectly acceptable catchall phrase that, although it may be out of place in an academic setting, is acceptable on the campaign trail.
And virgo is responsible for my spitting coffee all over Mr. A's keyboard ...
A.
Senator Mccain. It has been reported that you once considered running with Kerry, who hates America. does that not mean that you hated America 4 years ago.
This is all so academic. Now, what are the chances of my Celtics winning it all?
hey, you are an individual with free will, A.
Before I became a politician, I would have said that McCain and Graham are elitist liars who have no idea how to plan and lead military operations competently. But since I became a politician, I don't say things like that.
I emailed the authors of that piece, asking them how they could quote McCain as saying that Al Qaeda would take over Iraq in one paragraph, then claim he doesn't really believe it in another, without offering any proof.
I suspect I will receive no reply back on that one.
P.S. I also asked them why the fuck they would cite Ken Pollack and Reuel Gerect as experts when they've been wrong about every thing they've ever said about Iraq. I also expect no reply on that question either.
Few, including Mr. McCain, expect Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a Sunni group, to take control of Shiite-dominated Iraq in the event of an American withdrawal. The situation they fear and which Mr. McCain himself sometimes fleshes out is that an American withdrawal would be celebrated as a triumph by Al Qaeda and create instability that the group could then exploit to become more powerful.
You know what? Them's the fucking breaks for invading and occupying a country you had no business getting into in the first fucking place.
watertiger, what Herbert said. Damn, people, where is the FUCKING CHAIR?
I've said it before, I'll say it again, these so-called strategists could benefit from some time front row, center ice, listening to the student section scream:
HIT SOMEBODY
ANYBODY
EVERYBODY
HAAAARRRRRDDDD!!!!
A.
Like they're not using the Iraq war as a recruiting tool now.
Whom ever takes the Iraqi oilfields, I mean, other than the Western oil companies interest, will be labeled a terrorist, no matter what tribe, no matter what sect and will be ANY Iraqi at all, anyone not complying with Bush's Hydrocarbon Framework Law whereby 80% of all profits belong to US interest. Got it?
This war is all about saving US CLAIMED oil resources in Iraq and NOT anything else - not terrorism, not democracy, AND not al Qaeda in Iraq either. We can't leave that oil, it's what all the stop loss is about.
They say he is using a “perfectly reasonable catchall phrase” that, although it may be out of place in an academic setting, is acceptable on the campaign trail, a place that “does not lend itself to long-winded explanations of what we really are facing,” said Kenneth M. Pollack, research director at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.
People hate "long-winded explanations," unless it's McStain talking about how he doesn't boff young lobbyist tail.
watertiger, what Herbert said. Damn, people, where is the FUCKING CHAIR?
I've said it before, I'll say it again, these so-called strategists could benefit from some time front row, center ice, listening to the student section scream:
HIT SOMEBODY
ANYBODY
EVERYBODY
HAAAARRRRRDDDD!!!!
A.
Athenae
Can I ask a silly question? Are you mad at Bob Herbert?
and for the second straight day, EWTN has hijacked the transmitters of CNN and is broadcasting flagrant (and tedious) religious programming in place of, you know, news.
bah. If I didn't have 2 cats on my lap and the teebee way down the hall I would change the channel. This proves that cats are Papists.
The situation they fear and which Mr. McCain himself sometimes fleshes out is that an American withdrawal would be celebrated as a triumph by Al Qaeda and create instability that the group could then exploit to become more powerful.
Because right now there's lots of stability.
DWD, no, I'm mad at Democrats.
A.
(from below)
I put together a field class for my students in which they recorded bird songs in the field, used software to create and manipulate the resulting sonograms, then went back out and broadcast the manipulated sonograms and monitored the reactions.
The looked for differences in female response between original and modified songs.
Very fun lab. Students were experts on grackle vocalizations by the time they finished 
Oh goody - even more intangible hypotheticals based on inaccuracy and fantasy. Just what we want in 21st Century political policy!
I'm disappointed in Herbert.
This is all so academic. Now, what are the chances of my Celtics winning it all?
NTodd, Sexist Pig
I really think that is up to 'sheed, Chauncy, "Rip", "Tay" and "Dice."
he is using a “perfectly reasonable catchall phrase” that, although it may be out of place in an academic setting, is acceptable on the campaign trail, a place that “does not lend itself to long-winded explanations of what we really are facing,” said Kenneth M. Pollack, research director at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.
This whole paragraph of shite boils down to "Little words for the mass of useless eaters, real thinking for we Best Sort of People", right?
-
Forgotten parts of America?
McCain should ask Michael Moore to give him a tour of Flint, Michigan. Then he should ask David Paterson to give him a tour of Harlem. Or a certain former community organizer to give him a tour of Chicago.
Yes, Sen. McCain. The country's bigger than an air base in Pensacola.
Read Herbert. I guess my only reaction is that he is exaggerating the importance of the San Fran comments and the Rev Wright comments. But I have not really followed how BHO has responded to those fake issues, since I have discovered the location of the 'off' button on my teevee.
Ok, i have to get going now. Good day and good luck!
-
You know what? My connection really sucks right now. And I've got a guy coming over to look at a thing.
Later.
I call Ann Coulter a human being. It's just shorthand though.
She's actually a lizard.
DWD, no, I'm mad at Democrats.
A.
Athenae
I was nodding in agreement with most of what Herbert said, but I keep getting in trouble for expressing opinions around here so . . . .
Those weren't republicans rejecting the one candidate who had a solid platform of winning positions on important issues, the ability to articulate them and an unquenchable enthusiasm for the campaign and the people.
Those were democrats who fell for the media-crafted bullshit and rejected John Edwards.
And so we are left with these two pathetic midgets.
Good luck, America.
Is McCain focusing on the 'forgotten' parts of white america? That would be my expectation.
In one sentence Herbert blames HRC for her use of a flamethrower against BHO. In the next he blames BHO for allowing the Republicans to smear him as elitist.
John McCain is a dick.
http://www.dickipedia.org/
dick.p...tle=John_McCain
Our new operation in Iraq is called Operation Del Boca Vista Phase III.
Off for fun in the sun.
/Dr Seuss
Ooooh, blame the victim. That;'s the one thing all abusers have in common.
Instead, Mr. Obama is allowing the Clintons and the news media to craft a damaging persona of him as some kind of weak-kneed brother from another planet, out of touch with mainstream America, and perhaps a loser.
Forgotten parts of America?
McCain should ask Michael Moore to give him a tour of Flint, Michigan. Then he should ask David Paterson to give him a tour of Harlem. Or a certain former community organizer to give him a tour of Chicago.
Yes, Sen. McCain. The country's bigger than an air base in Pensacola.
ProfWombat | 04.19.08 - 10:51 am | # [kill][hide comment]
He and Bush could make a campaign stop down in the colonias in South Texas, where there's no running water or indoor toilets or electricity
Oh wait, I bet those folks don't vote.
Too poor to vote
All right, Dingo Fest '08 has started up in the other room. Gotta go pull them off each other.
Have a good day, bats. Try to not hit anyone you don't MEAN to hit with that chair.
A.
Few, including Mr. McCain, expect Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a Sunni group, to take control of Shiite-dominated Iraq in the event of an American withdrawal.
Although McCain seems incapable of expressing this thought, we are to take it on face value from the media that this is really what he understands.
The situation they fear and which Mr. McCain himself sometimes fleshes out is that an American withdrawal would be celebrated as a triumph by Al Qaeda and create instability that the group could then exploit to become more powerful.
Yes, we certainly would not want to create instability in Iraq - that could have disastrous consequences.
Truthfully, the 'forgotten' bits of America McCain is probably thinking of are places like Arizona and New Mexico - you know, the states that are treated like underperforming colonies.
RE: Iraq. When are they going to figure out that having Americans in charge of a Muslim Country in the Middle East is NEVER going to work?
I call Ann Coulter a human being. It's just shorthand though.
She's actually a lizard.
Lizard, of course, is just shorthand for vile, disease-ridden alien that likes to eat puppies alive and shit all over your head on a weekly basis whilst picking rotten flesh from her jagged green teeth with her pointy cock.
virgotex: there's a long, long list of places in America that a sympathetic observer would find instructive, even, perhaps, in the best of all possible worlds, providing a moral imperative to act.
I don't like the length of the campaign for the usual reasons; I grow tired of it. But it's a big country...
Sen. Lieber...err, Clinton is coordinating her attacks on Obama with the GOP.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
20...nt_n_97469.html
-GSD
HIT SOMEBODY
ANYBODY
EVERYBODY
HAAAARRRRRDDDD!!!!
I can understand where Herbert's coming from, but I don't think that's the way Obama's going to work.
Organizers understand that the first thing you have to do is get a solid consensus that change is necessary, a real commitment to it that comes from members of the community themselves.
While moving toward that commitment, members are also beginning to articulate just what change means for them -- not jus the results they want to see but how they're going to get headed in that direction.
When one person starts hitting with the chair, a lot of people just moving toward accepting the notion of activism in the interests of change get scared. And the backlash from those who don't want change is enormous.
I think he's a suble guy. Some may argue too subtle, but he's got a whole nation to nudge into new directions.
I just don't see chair flinging as his thing . . .
.
Just an offhand observation: for Hillary to actually have been successful with this strategy required that there were no other distractions this week like the Pope visiting or something. Well, never mind. . . .
The Presidency of George W. Bush is a victory for AQ. He and McCain are their most important assets.
As Bill Clinton put it last month: “If a politician doesn’t want to get beat up, he shouldn’t run for office.”
Which is why Hillary is happy when Stephanopoulos gargles Sean Hannity's jizz.
Yep, that makes sense.
.
I just don't see chair flinging as his thing . . .
I think his attempt at chair-flinging the other night, pointing out to the three people opposing him that the lapel pin issue was a manufactured controversy, didn't hit them hard enough.
Why not ask Stephanfetchitopoulos why he wasn't wearing one? Gibson? McCain?
Clinton? Where was her lapel pin?
Tralfaz: absolutely. Osama Bin Laden and George Bush are utterly codependent.
An evenhanded, consistent, humane American policy in the Middle East would destroy Al Qaeda within five years, without firing a shot.
Why not ask Stephanfetchitopoulos why he wasn't wearing one? Gibson? McCain?
watertiger
Or Clinton.
So Sen. McCain, your party was in charge of America for most of the last 12 years in congress and the Whitehouse for the last 8 years.
Who's been doing the forgetting?
-GSD
Can you coke yourself, there, watertiger?
Or Clinton.
i was trying to multitask - opening bills and typing at the same time.
i was trying to multitask - opening bills and typing at the same time.
Leave that mockingbird alone!
Geeky econ humor over at Calculated Risk:
'http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/04/were-
all-busta-now.html
I was nodding in agreement with most of what Herbert said, but I keep getting in trouble for expressing opinions around here so . . . .
DWD
I agree with nearly everything you say here. IMHO many Democrats have forgotten what the term means.
An evenhanded, consistent, humane American policy in the Middle East would destroy Al Qaeda within five years, without firing a shot.
ProfWombat
To bad the NeoCons and other right wing psychotics want genocide. They can't say it but they want it. It's a fact.
Leave that mockingbird alone!
you, me, and noblejoanie need a birding trip.
This is all so academic. Now, what are the chances of my Celtics winning it all?
NTodd, Sexist Pig
I hear Elway is going to play for the Suns.
I really think that is up to 'sheed, Chauncy, "Rip", "Tay" and "Dice."
I wouldn't underestimate Mssrs. Pierce, KG, Allen, and Cassell.
watertiger -- I do think he was too reserved that night. I would like to have heard him ask that question. More, I would like to have heard him say, "Since you aren't asking substantive questions, let me pose one to myself and answer it."
But then I think that could bring all hell down on him, and I think he's pretty good at exposing mendacity and hypocrisy, then standing back and letting the citizenry take it in for themselves and evaluate it.
.
I wouldn't underestimate Mssrs. Pierce, KG, Allen, and Cassell.
KG missed practice for the 2nd time, apparently because his wife had a baby. Celts don't see concerned...
Lindsey Graham thinks South Carolina tax dollars are better spent in Iraq than in South Carolina.
Not much else to say about that.
Tralfaz: the essence of the right wing's psychosis is their need to define themselves, often in denial of their own natures, via demonization of the other. They seek to measure their courage by their willingness to have others kill, and be killed, in their name.
Hillary's lapel pin is as irrelevant as Obama's.
Why do Bush, McCain, and Graham insist o spending our hard earned dollars in a foreign adventure when people at home are hurting?
Considering that McCain is going to increase spending and cut taxes, they obviously could save money by just not having a Press Secretary, Deputy Press Secretary, Assistante Press Secretary and the entire White House Press Office, and simply let the media lie to itself.
Why pay good taxpayer money when you can get your quotes out via the likes of Kevin Pollack for free?
KG missed practice for the 2nd time, apparently because his wife had a baby. Celts don't see concerned...
At this point of the season, after they've played 80+ games, missing a couple of practices might be a good thing.
Spending money on foreign military adventures will bankrupt the people back home.
-- Sun Tzu
But then I think that could bring all hell down on him, and I think
he's pretty good at exposing mendacity and hypocrisy, then standing
back and letting the citizenry take it in for themselves and evaluate
it.
I think that gives a fair portion of the "citizenry" more credit than may be due for analytical thinking.
He's damned if he does, and he's damned if he doesn't. If he fires back, then he's labelled "angry and out-of-touch". If he doesn't, then the media continues to pile on with the inane bullshit.
Prof Wombat:
you had something to say to me, say it to my face
I don't know why either candidate feels compelled to answer the drivel. Wrest control of the debate, address what needs addressing and dismiss the bullshit questions and questioners. Raise the bar. Be leaders.
These moderators aren't the ones going to hire you, we are. So talk to us.
I'd further suggest that the right wing's policies are oriented toward its own definition, perpetuation, enrichment, and power, and to no other purpose. This is why they fail so regularly in the business of government. Governing's not the point.
Obama does have to take a page from Poppy Bush's Dan Rather playbook and jump all over some media hack's shit.
I'd personally like to see him kick Bill Kristol in the neck.
I'd settle for him calling Wolf Blitzer a tool and a shill.
-GSD
“Bin Laden is a pretty good judge of the history of his own organization and its future, and he looks upon Iraq as the great battle, the make-or-break issue that will decide the fate of the ummah,” the global community of Islamic faithful.
So now a terrorist is a pundit.
Sparkle Plenty if Obama would have done that I would have sent it a weeks pay now (not over the $2300 limit) instead of waiting for him to call McBombBomb "friendo" during a debate.
Spending money on foreign military adventures will bankrupt the people back home.
-- Adam Smith
Hillary's lapel pin is as irrelevant as Obama's.
I agree wholeheartedly. Which is why it was so incredibly infuriating to watch that line of questioning the other night.
you had something to say to me, say it to my face
heh. Idiocy abounds.
I think that gives a fair portion of the "citizenry" more credit than may be due for analytical thinking.
If you asked a fair portion of the "citizenry" about anything analytical, they would accuse you of being a pervert.
why is Kenneth Pollack still being quoted?
So now a terrorist is a pundit.
he's the Friedman of Araby!
*sent him a weeks pay
Regrets.
Simels.
They seek to measure their courage by their willingness to have others kill, and be killed, in their name.
ProfWombat
If they want to measure their courage, they'll need the same magnifying glass and micrometer they use to measure their weenies...
“Bin Laden is a pretty good judge of the history of his own organization and its future, and he looks upon Iraq as the great battle, the make-or-break issue that will decide the fate of the ummah,” the global community of Islamic faithful.
You can't believe a word that camel-fucker says.
Russ Feingold told asshole John Robertst to the woodshed and Democratis should do more of it
Cliff Schecter should be on more as well as others like him
Beef stew for breakfast: inflammatory or concilliatory?
This is the New York fucking Times.
Maker of conventional wisdom.
This country is drowning in lies.
mimi: I've found it sometimes, but not invariably, impossible to engage you in substantive discussion because you don't listen to what I have to say, but, rather, repeat, without emendation or enlargement, the same point to which I responded, without any recognition that I've in fact said something.
So, when you're reasonable, more power to you, and, unlike some here, I'll engage you, as I will anybody else. But you're one of only one or two people I've said 'I'm done' to, ending a fruitless and increasingly acrimonious discussion, in the five years or so I've been here on this blog.
why is Kenneth Pollack still being quoted?
kevin de bruxelles
Instead of ridiculed as he so richly deserves
I didn't known that Philly was a war zone. A-man better be careful!!!
http://www.boomantribune.com/sto...4/18/17309/
4611
Beef stew for breakfast: inflammatory or concilliatory?
Conciliatory if the opponent is Arthur.
Inflammatory if the opponent is cattle.
Objective truth has a toe tag on and is stinking up the morgue.
-GSD
New York Times (as quoted by Atrios):
"Few, including Mr. McCain, expect Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a Sunni group, to take control of Shiite-dominated Iraq in the event of an American withdrawal. The situation they fear and which Mr. McCain himself sometimes fleshes out is that an American withdrawal would be celebrated as a triumph by Al Qaeda..."
Really? Our justification for staying in Iraq, for losing ove 4000 lives and counting, is to keep Al Qaeda from having a PR victory?
.
Prof Wombat:
you are right and I am sorry.
I will try to incorporate your fine suggestions into my future behaviour and I thank you for them.
No sarcasm is intended even though it may sound like it.
watertiger -- Well, the media can say he did poorly in that debate and couldn't stand up to tough questions all they want.
What viewers saw was a bunch of stupid questions and Obama saying this isn't what we want to hear them talk about.
And he's right, of course.
mimi, when did Heinrich Hertz build the first radar system? Was it 10 or 20 years after he died?
I want to see what other mass murderers feel about Iraq.
Lets ask the BTK killer.
The longer we stay in Iraq the more Al Kitty loves it.
They'd also love for the U.S. to bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran.
They hates 'em.
I agree with nearly everything you say here. IMHO many Democrats have forgotten what the term means.
cahuenga
Careful, you will get a bad rep.
Off for more fun in the sun (while it lasts)
Peace.
Really? Our justification for staying in Iraq, for losing ove 4000 lives and counting, is to keep Al Qaeda from having a PR victory?
It's like when Dumbya declared victory after losing the popular vote.
Senator McCain. You were born in Panama and denounced American during your stay in the Hanoi Hilton. Are you eligible to run for President?
-
Good morning. I've been up since 6, and already feel like I put a full day in.
If stay there will be trouble because the Shia dominated government of Iraq is aligned with Iran, but if we go there will be double because al Qaeda, which is 2% of Iraq will overtake the Shia dominated government of Iraq that is aligned with Iran.
So come on and let me know, should we stay or should we go.
mimi: fair enough, and generously said.
"I didn't known that Philly was a war zone. A-man better be careful!!!"
i teach in that area. guess that makes me eligible for veterans benefits.
Al Qaeda celebrated the original invasion as a triumph.
They have celebrated the continued occupation as triumph.
They'd celebrate the death of all their top leaders as a triumph.
Apparently we must occuppy Iraq to keep Al Qaeda from talking shit.
-GSD
Prof Wombat
I should also tell you how much I value your opinion and that I find that you are one of the people here who can speak intelligently on any subject.
owls
Sheets
What viewers saw was a bunch of stupid questions and Obama saying this isn't what we want to hear them talk about.
That's the way I see it. The media completely misses the point.
There are going to be a lot of surprised people, I think.
This is why they fail so regularly in the business of government. Governing's not the point.
They see everything through zero sum Ayn Randian glasses. If this welfare mother or this public school or this health program gets more money, it is stealing money from me and my specific interests (imperialism, big money, corporations, etc.). There exists no understanding, none!, that feeding the poor, sheltering the immigrants, providing education increases the wealth of the nation, not to mention its humanity, safety and resilience. We have turned the Statue of Liberty into a heavily guarded target for those who hate us. That says multitudes.
Prof
As they say in German "natürlich" which means that this behaviour is supposed to be entirely normal.
I can haz lovely mowed Spring-green lawn!
This is the New York Fucking Times.
Imagine if someone were to hack their typesetting computer very late one night...
Our justification for staying in Iraq, for losing ove 4000 lives and counting, is to keep Al Qaeda from having a PR victory?
Why not? It was a fucking PR war in the first place. It's not actually a 'war' in any event -- it's the world's most expensive campaign commercial.
"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said author and Houston Chronicle journalist Mickey Herskowitz. "It was on his mind. He said, 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He went on, 'If I have a chance to invade…, if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency.'"
I've taken the time to pause for a day, Mr. Black. Give you some time to reflect on my presence.
I see you cited the blog of Mr. Yglesias yesterday. Were you the first writer in the thread named Steve Duncan?
I've always been under the impression your name was Duncan Black.
I'm starting to think this may be some sort of chapter of "Resevoir Dogs", the way your nom de guerre changes.
Maybe you should start referring to me as Mr. Green, hmm?
Or how about Mr. Chartreuse or something...
Like that line in "Grindhouse", where Tarantino says ..."so good, they gave its name to a colour".
con't
Did you take the time to read Sam's entry on Friday at AirAmerica.com
I don't believe he actually wrote the particular commentary, but undoubtably he approved the posting. He does most of the webmaster duties these days, if I'm not mistaken.
I refer to this link...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatch...clatchy/
2913186
It will probably disappear in a week, knowing Yahoo.com
Maybe I should append the content here.
I think when I eventually do get back to your desktop publishing site, it may an icebreaker between the both of us...to understand my presence is not the reminder of the Armed Forces recruitment station...as the "It's Your Grave" station...
...but perhaps the idea, we can make a difference when our knowledge of the truth behind events, DOES allow us to save the lives of innocents, including our fighting men and women.
(I think we are on the same page, no matter where our comments may appear.)
GSD: "Apparently we must occuppy Iraq to keep Al Qaeda from talking shit."
Yes, it's insane.
I can't believe that's the argument they really want to make.
Let's hope the Pugs stick with that argument. Because that's a clear loser to anyone.
.
I've taken the time to pause for a day, Mr. Black. Give you some time to reflect on my presence.
Thrilling.
I've taken the time to pause for a day, Mr. Black. Give you some time to reflect on my presence.
Reminds me of Friedman.
In case you want to question the McClatchy track record, then my suggestion is to read this Bill Moyers transcript from a year ago. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/
journa...ranscript1.html
- - -
Pentagon institute calls Iraq war 'a major debacle' with outcome 'in doubt'
By Jonathan S. Landay and John Walcott, McClatchy Newspapers
Thu Apr 17, 8:38 PM ET
WASHINGTON — The war in Iraq has become "a major debacle" and the outcome "is in doubt" despite improvements in security from the buildup in U.S. forces, according to a highly critical study published Thursday by the Pentagon's premier military educational institute.
The report released by the National Defense University raises fresh doubts about President Bush 's projections of a U.S. victory in Iraq just a week after Bush announced that he was suspending U.S. troop reductions.
con't
The report carries considerable weight because it was written by Joseph Collins , a former senior Pentagon official, and was based in part on interviews with other former senior defense and intelligence officials who played roles in prewar preparations.
It was published by the university's National Institute for Strategic Studies , a Defense Department research center.
"Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle," says the report's opening line.
At the time the report was written last fall, more than 4,000 U.S. and foreign troops, more than 7,500 Iraqi security forces and as many as 82,000 Iraqi civilians had been killed and tens of thousands of others wounded, while the cost of the war since March 2003 was estimated at $450 billion .
"No one as yet has calculated the costs of long-term veterans' benefits or the total impact on service personnel and materiel," wrote Collins, who was involved in planning post-invasion humanitarian operations.
con't
The report said that the United States has suffered serious political costs, with its standing in the world seriously diminished. Moreover, operations in Iraq have diverted "manpower, materiel and the attention of decision-makers" from "all other efforts in the war on terror" and severely strained the U.S. armed forces.
"Compounding all of these problems, our efforts there (in Iraq ) were designed to enhance U.S. national security, but they have become, at least temporarily, an incubator for terrorism and have emboldened Iran to expand its influence throughout the Middle East ," the report continued.
The addition of 30,000 U.S. troops to Iraq last year to halt the country's descent into all-out civil war has improved security, but not enough to ensure that the country emerges as a stable democracy at peace with its neighbors, the report said.
con't
"Despite impressive progress in security, the outcome of the war is in doubt," said the report. "Strong majorities of both Iraqis and Americans favor some sort of U.S. withdrawal. Intelligence analysts, however, remind us that the only thing worse than an Iraq with an American army may be an Iraq after a rapid withdrawal of that army."
"For many analysts (including this one), Iraq remains a 'must win,' but for many others, despite obvious progress under General David Petraeus and the surge, it now looks like a 'can't win.'"
The report lays much of the blame for what went wrong in Iraq after the initial U.S. victory at the feet of then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld . It says that in November 2001 , before the war in Afghanistan was over, President Bush asked Rumsfeld "to begin planning in secret for potential military operations against Iraq ."
Rumsfeld, who was closely allied with Vice President Dick Cheney , bypassed the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the report says, and became "the direct supervisor of the combatant commanders."
con't
" . . . the aggressive, hands-on Rumsfeld," it continues, "cajoled and pushed his way toward a small force and a lightning fast operation." Later, he shut down the military's computerized deployment system, "questioning, delaying or deleting units on the numerous deployment orders that came across his desk."
In part because "long, costly, manpower-intensive post-combat operations were anathema to Rumsfeld," the report says, the U.S. was unprepared to fight what Collins calls "War B," the battle against insurgents and sectarian violence that began in mid-2003, shortly after "War A," the fight against Saddam Hussein's forces, ended.
Compounding the problem was a series of faulty assumptions made by Bush's top aides, among them an expectation fed by Iraqi exiles that Iraqis would be grateful to America for liberating them from Saddam's dictatorship. The administration also expected that " Iraq without Saddam could manage and fund its own reconstruction."
con't
The report also singles out the Bush administration's national security apparatus and implicitly President Bush and both of his national security advisers, Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley , saying that "senior national security officials exhibited in many instances an imperious attitude, exerting power and pressure where diplomacy and bargaining might have had a better effect."
Collins ends his report by quoting Winston Churchill , who said: "Let us learn our lessons. Never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. . . . Always remember, however sure you are that you can easily win, that there would not be a war if the other man did not think that he also had a chance."
To read the report:
www.ndu.edu/inss/Occasional_Papers/OP5.pdf
but then," and Imus continued: "And then when they show up at the debate, they fold up like a couple of cheap lawn chairs. I mean, I don't understand that. And he's almost a bigger pussy than she is."
http://mediamatters.org/items/20...0006?
f=h_latest
but then," and Imus continued: "And then when they show up at the debate, they fold up like a couple of cheap lawn chairs. I mean, I don't understand that. And he's almost a bigger pussy than she is."
http://mediamatters.org/items/20...0006? f=h_latest
trifecta | Homepage | 04.19.08 - 11:35 am | #
Does it make me a bad person that I think Imus should be dropped in the ocean and used as a base for growing coral reefs?
I guess in the spirit of continuity, this may be called "staying within topic" of the thread, yes?
A straight talk "academic opinion" then?!
In any event Duncan, I probably will not be back in quite some time. I too, have work to do.
While I don't quite understand why you don't have a car, if you ever pass thru my area in need of a place to stay, them my door will be quite open to you or any of your crew. It's on a bus route -btw.
And just so you understand intuitively...house policy will always be BYOB.
I'm NOT charity.
(Just real.)
"can I wear your sweater?"-media to John MCCain
A few simple questions about Iraq:
Who is the enemy?
What is victory?
How many lives are too many?
How much money is too much?
Atrios (aka Mr. Know It All): McCain is RIGHT!
After the fall of Saigon, was this country not forced to fight the Viet Cong house-to-house in the bloody streets of San Francisco? Have you forgotten the battle of Kansas City? New Jersey in flames? The surrender ceremony in the Capital Building? Because I haven't. And neither, thank God, has John McCain.
Who is the enemy?
What is victory?
How many lives are too many?
How much money is too much?
Democrats.
A Republican president, and a veto-proof majority in both Houses of Congress, in case the GOP loses the White House.
No number of lives are too many
No sum of money is too much.
Iraq -- not so much a war as the world's most expensive campaign commercial.
JWL: "After the fall of Saigon, was this country not forced to fight the Viet Cong house-to-house... Have you forgotten ... the surrender ceremony in the Capital Building?"
For those who have forgotten, the details can be found in this news report from 1975:
http://www.theonion.com/content/...de/26331/print/
.
Senator McCain claims on one hand that "if American forces withdrew, Al Qaeda would be “taking a country.”" yet the same NYT article also asserts that "Few, including Mr. McCain, expect Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a Sunni group, to take control of Shiite-dominated Iraq in the event of an American withdrawal."
So how does one explain this blatant contradiction?
It appears that Senator McCain says one thing in public and another thing in private, yet none of the MSM wants to call him on it.
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